The actress in Justine appeared again as she held out her hand and thanked Jane profusely for agreeing to come to Ascot to interview her. ‘Do just let me know if you need to speak to me again about anything.’

Before she could reply, Jane found herself ushered out into the marble hallway, through the front door and down the steps towards her car. She got in the car and slammed the door shut, frowning. Spencer had suggested that Charles Foxley’s office was a nest of vipers and Jane was beginning to feel that the house she’d just left was too.

*

The morning’s briefing was already underway in the boardroom. Jane had hurried to the canteen to grab a sandwich and a coffee before she joined them. Tyler nodded his head towards her as he continued describing the lack of progress. Jane sat next to DI Arnold and whispered to him that she was glad to see he was back. He acknowledged her with a small smile and then concentrated on Tyler, making small notes in an open notebook in front of him. The blackboard had scrawled names crossed out and newspaper articles detailing the murder littered the boardroom table.

DC Dors entered the room carrying two large carrier bags containing video cassettes collected from Foxley’s office. Tyler looked in the bag and glanced at the titles on the spines. They seemed to be mostly ‘CF at Premiere’ or ‘CF at Theatre Opening’. He turned to Dors.

‘Take these up to the tech division and ask them to splice together all the footage of Foxley. I’m not wasting time trawling through all his red-carpet functions.’

Dors gathered up the bags of video cassettes and left the room. The briefing continued as various detectives described the interviews they had had so far with people on Myers’ list. They had been able to eliminate them as suspects due to their alibis being confirmed, but they still had about thirty more people they needed to interview.

Tyler turned to Jane and asked if she had gained anything positive from the ex-wife. Jane quickly summarized her time in Ascot, saying that she felt it was imperative she interview Justine Harris again, at her own home. She felt the interview had been dominated by Florence’s presence. Jane also told him that Justine had mentioned that, at some point around five years ago, Foxley had visited a prostitute who had been found murdered.

‘She admitted that at the time she had lied for her husband and given him an alibi, which is obviously perjury but also, of course, an indication that she is a very able liar. I will double-check with records to see what we have and if anyone was arrested and charged with the murder.’

‘Well, it would be bloody useful if we had the tart’s name,’ Tyler muttered. ‘Did you have any joy with the missing diary?’